Enough Talk, It’s Time To Play Defense Among Biggest Factors In Apple Cup ‘96

As Washington State coach Mike Price put it for, oh, roughly the 50th time this week, “I just think it’s great Pullman can host this intercollegiate football game when you have the No. 1 rusher in the conference (Dillon) and the No. 2 rusher in the conference (Black), as well as two of the up-and-coming quarterbacks (Huard, Leaf).”

Defense, anyone?

The 89th Apple Cup, billed mostly as a showcase for some of the most exciting offensive players in the Pacific-10 Conference, will also be determined by talented defenders like Washington’s Jason Chorak and Ink Aleaga, or Washington State’s James Darling and Leon Bender.

Chorak, a QB-crunching linebacker, leads the Pac-10 with 13-1/2 sacks, even though he missed one game with an injury. “Chorak plays very inspired, plays as hard as any player that I’ve seen this year on tape,” Price said. “He caught a San Jose State guy that ran a flanker screen from behind 50 yards down the field.”

Keeping Chorak out of Leaf’s face will be a fundamental concern for WSU, which allowed five sacks in last week’s deflating loss at Stanford.

On defense, the Cougars’ task is simple, if not easy. Basically, they want to keep Dillon from having his own segment on SportsCenter.

Dillon, Washington’s 6-foot-2, 225-pound tailback, has already set several school records. He comes barreling into Martin Stadium one week after setting the NCAA record for most yards rushing in a single quarter (222).

“He has the ability to get up in tight behind his offensive linemen and he just kind of hangs in there until the little seam opens somewhere, then he bursts through it,” WSU defensive coordinator Bill Doba explained. “He doesn’t panic. If it’s closed up, he doesn’t try to bounce outside.”

With Dillon leading the way, and Huard finding reliable targets in tight end Cam Cleeland and split end Jerome Pathon, the Huskies lead the Pac-10 in time of possession (WSU ranks last).

Might the Cougars have trouble stopping such a powerful attack? The answer comes in the complexity of Price’s reply:

“We would like to stop the run without sacrificing play-action pass and coming up too soon with our safeties and then getting burned with that tight end across the middle.”

In other words, “Yeah.”

As much as anything, recent meteorological history gives WSU reason to believe the 12th-ranked Huskies may be vulnerable. UW has lost two straight here, surrendering to the harsh elements as well as the traditionally fired-up Cougars.

As if on cue, a sheet of ice covered the Martin Stadium field Friday night, reducing the Huskies’ evening walk-through to little more than a night at the skating rink. WSU practiced indoors.

The cold is expected to continue. According to The Weather Channel, today’s high in Pullman should be 35 degrees.